The appellee, Sutherland Global Services, a call center support service provider, invoked the arbitration clause contained in its Master Service Agreement with the appellant, Adam Technologies, after Adam reportedly failed to pay for call center services rendered under the contract. The arbitration resulted in an award for Sutherland, which the district court confirmed. Adam appealed this ruling, contending that the arbitrators exceeded their authority and manifestly disregarded the terms of the contract. The Second Circuit found that Adam’s attempts to demonstrate errors committed by the panel were nothing more than attacks on “an arbitrator’s factual findings and contractual interpretation” which “generally are not subject to judicial challenge.” To the extent Adam argued that the panel overlooked certain provisions in the MSA limiting damages, the court held that the FAA “does not permit vacatur for legal errors.” Finally, with respect to Adam’s argument that the panel was improperly constituted, the court held that this contention was previously rejected by an earlier proceeding before the Fifth Circuit, and therefore barred by the doctrine of issue preclusion. Sutherland Glob. Servs. Inc. v. Adam Techs. Int’l SA de C.V., Case No. 15-1063-cv (2d Cir. Feb. 9, 2016).
This post written by Joshua S. Wirth.
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